Sri Lanka’s great opportunity to record a historic T20I series win by defeating West Indies in the West Indies was lost at the last moment. West Indies managed to win the third and final T20 match between the two countries by 5 wickets. Accordingly, the West Indies won the three-match T20 series 2-1.
Batting first, Sri Lanka’s first 6 wickets fell for 111 runs and the team was in a difficult situation. However, Dunith Wellalage and Wanindu Hasaranga, who took the burden of the innings, built a quick partnership of 49 runs in 28 balls for the 7th wicket.
Dunith Wellalage scored his highest score in T20Is with 43 runs off 28 balls, while Wanindu Hasaranga scored 21 runs off 13 balls. Their fighting innings saw Sri Lanka set a challenging target of 170 runs in their allotted 20 overs.
Chasing a target of 170 runs, the Sri Lankan bowlers took control of the match, taking all four wickets in 53 runs. However, Sharfane Rutherford and Rovman Powell then came on to add 81 runs off 53 balls for the fifth wicket to revive the West Indies innings.
During this partnership, two (2) catches taken by Rutherford to Eshan Malinga and Dasun Shanaka were the key factors that changed the fate of the match. Taking full advantage of this, Rutherford scored an unbeaten 53 off 40 balls and Powell scored 33 off 27 balls to put Sri Lanka on the edge of victory.
Jason Holder, who launched a merciless attack on Dushmantha Chameera, who bowled the 19th over of the match, hit 3 sixes in that over to completely turn the match in West Indies’ favour. Accordingly, only 6 runs were left for victory in the final over.
West Indies sealed their victory in the 4th ball of Dasun Shanaka, who bowled the final over. Jason Holder scored an unbeaten 21 off 5 balls with the help of 3 sixes.
In the bowling department, Wanindu Hasaranga bowled brilliantly for Sri Lanka, taking 2 wickets for 17 runs in 2 overs, while Mahish Theekshana (1/26) and Dunith Wellalage (1/23) shared one wicket each.
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